Interlinear B

Some further interlinear notes and queries, in an attempt to decipher the Premier's interview with The Labradorian this week:

DW: Unfortunately when we looked at that, [the auditorium had to go into] the tier two category. But on the other hand in last year’s budget we made a significant contribution to culture generally in this province, to the island and in Labrador, for more general initiatives. But this [auditorium] was a specific initiative.

The Rooms is in St. John’s. The Magnetic North Theatre Festival will be held in St. John’s. And the auditorium for Happy Valley-Goose Bay is just as “general”, given the vast area it would serve, as any of the $2.4-million in cultural initiatives, centred in St. John’s, that the provincial government announced in last year’s budget.

DW: The cost had gone up significantly and at that particular time I guess quite simply we had to say from a money perspective that we couldn’t afford it. From a culture perspective we can’t afford not to do it either so it’s something that’s under consideration now. What we were hoping to do, leading into the last federal election, was to lever up the federal government to see if we could get them to increase their contribution. So as well there was some strategic political consideration going on there and that’s a very straight answer.

Why is it that provincial spending in Labrador is always contingent on access to federal funds?

Has Labrador ceased to be part of the province? Does Labrador not contribute to the provincial treasury? Has Labrador become a federal territory?

Is this insistence on federal funding for provincial initiatives consistent, or inconsistent, with the Premier’s stated goal from 2001?:

It’s high time that Labradorians, instead of feeling like someone else’s treasure trove, started feeling like an integral part of our province.

Danny continues:

DW: I’m committed to making sure we have the proper transportation infrastructure in Labrador. Minister [for Transportation and Works and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Tom] Rideout has successfully gotten the [Trans Labrador Highway] into the proper category [part of the National Highway System], where it should be. We can now access significant funds from the Government of Canada.

How much provincial funding is the provincial government willing to put into a provincial highway in the Labrador part of the province?

How much provincial funding is the provincial government willing to put into a provincial highway in the Labrador part of the province, whether or not the federal government spends even more than the 90% of the public funding to date that has ever gone into the highway?

Why is it that provincial spending in Labrador is always contingent on access to federal funds?

Has Labrador ceased to be part of the province? Does Labrador not contribute to the provincial treasury? Has Labrador become a federal territory?

Is this insistence on federal funding for provincial initiatives consistent, or inconsistent, with the Premier’s stated goal from 2001?:

It’s high time that Labradorians, instead of feeling like someone else’s treasure trove, started feeling like an integral part of our province.

Danny continues:

DW: I can tell you when you look at the money that was spent last year for the entire island compared to the money that was spent in Labrador, you would see a significant disproportion in expenditure on a per capita basis for Labrador.

You will find the same thing if you look at federal spending in Newfoundland and Labrador as a whole. What’s your point, Premier?

DW: I just say that to point that out to you and it’s not because I’m not in favour of it — I’m totally in favour of it and so is my government — but on the other hand Labradorians have to realize that I have to find a delicate balance of spreading scarce resources around a very large province with a huge geographical area to which services have to be provided throughout.

Question for the Premier: What does Labrador contribute, on a per-capita basis, to the provincial treasury? Let’s make a fair comparison here.

DW: It is difficult but Labradorians need to know we’re on their side and I don’t sense that Labradorians feel that. I’m disappointed in that.

This may have something to do with the fact that the Premier’s own government has broken its own promise to Labrador to include Labradorians in decision-making processes, to make Labradorians the beneficiaries of Labrador’s resources, and to “practice what we preach”; and something to do with the fact that the Premier has carried on his predecessors’ proud tradition of making supposed provincial commitments to, and priorities in, Labrador, contingent on federal funding, even in areas of exclusive provincial jurisdiction.

Labradorian: How are you going to try and turn that around?

DW: We’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing.

Blaming the federal government for your own shortcomings and unwillingness to commit provincial funding to provincial programs and projects in Labrador?

Collecting revenues from Voisey’s Bay, GWAC, and other Labrador sources, then pleading poverty?

Lowering expectations? Breaking promises?

Stupidity: doing the same thing over and over in expectation of getting a different result.